Help me decide /Axe or /mace with Invulnerable

So I'm making up a new tank and it will be Invulnerable, but cant decide on either axe or mace.

One of my main goals in this game was to play every armor set, and most melee setsto 50 at least once. I have done all the armors but my Invulnerability is a brute and really want to try it Tank side.

The only melee sets I have left are Ice, Axe, Mace, claws(have a widow though) and Katana(have ninja blade though)

My characters look will probably be Valkyrie or Viking so both axe and mace would fit that. Invulnerability doesn't need as much mitigation as other sets, but both axe and mace offer good mitigation.

They both look about the same in terms of what they do on paper, but how do they play out differently?

What I'm asking for is someone to tell me how much they love or hate either axe or mace to help me out. The only thing that is making me sway towards axe at this time is that mace would pair up better with dark(have dark brute side) with the stacking of disorients.

Mace has better AoE -- (a wider cone and Crowd Control affects 10 enemies vs Axe's Pendulum affecting 5). That said, Axe does somewhat more damage with its heavy hitters, and the knockdown is consistent (not mixed with stuns). They are extremely close sets otherwise. In your case, one additional element to consider is that the consistent knockdown of Axe is pretty good mitigation which Inv may not really need.

I usually recommend that a player look at the custom weapon options and choose based on the pretty pictures. :P Perhaps you could rough out a concept for each combo you are considering -- Inv/Mace, Inv/Axe, Dark/Mace, Dark/Axe (or what have you) and see if any particular look/story/concept "hooks" you.

I have a 50 Shield/Axe Tanker and greatly enjoy him...except for the nagging feeling when Pendulum only knocks down 5 guys. I have a level 17-18 Shield/Mace who gets a little work every few days and will one day get to use his cones. :P

Edit: I also have an Invulnerability Tanker at 50, and I want to add that he's usually my go-to guy when facing the really nasty hard content. I enjoy Inv a lot more than I expected I would, coming from a Defender/Controller background.

I would say Mace is the better secondary due to it's AOE but either should work fine. Axe probably has more straight up single target damage while Mace has better mitigation and AOE.

Take this for what it's worth however as I haven't played either secondary to any significant level so I'm just going by the power descriptions in Mid's.

Ice Melee has swords too, you know. Too bad they both suck... FWIW, Ice Melee does do better AoE than either of the weapon sets. See guide in sig.

Mace is slightly better for AoE damage, but I think Axe has slightly better mitigation w/the KD's vs Stuns. Really, they're very close. If you want a Viking though, Axe all the way. My modern-day Viking, Eirik Varangian, is SD/Axe, and he kicks much booty. Mace is maybe better paired w/Dark to stack the stuns.

My main (and first) toon is as Invuln/Mace tank. I love the combo to death, but then again I loved it before the buffs to mace when it was lovingly referred to as "the rubber mace" due to its poor damage.

I have 0 personal experience with Axe, but from the description, anecdotal evidence from friends, etc here's what I can tell you about the 2 sets:

The mitigation from axe is superior solely because it is all 1 type (knockdown). The mix of stuns and KD from mace will actually limit its usefulness, since only pulverize, clobber and whirling mace have stuns (tough to stack, though clobber does give a mag 3 stun) and everything else is KD or knock up (jawbreaker). The damage on each attack is slightly higher on Axe, though I personally don't think it's all that discernible, but still, the difference is there.

Where Mace wins is Aoe. Since the changed Crowd control to a 180 degree arc with a target cap of 10, I never have a problem knocking down a TON of bad guys near me and doing some fairly decent damage as well. changing Shatter to a 45 degree arc also helped to ensure that hitting all 5 enemies is stupidly easy.

I would go with Mace for two reasons, Clobber and Crowd Control, the former is a potent s/t attack since it's buff, and the latter is like a mini footstomp and it's just plain fun.

There are numbers to back that up, but everyone's pretty much covered that, no need to bore you.
Have fun.

-> TT MA Arc ID 1755 -> Join TankHQ -> Media -> @AceMACE

I have an Invuln/Mace that I love, but I would agree with other posters in saying that you should go with what you want... concept trumps all, in my opinion.

Thanks all for the feedback. I went ahead and went with mace, for 2 reasons I like some of the other mace options better. Second I'm a big fan of AOE's so that is what really sold me.

Played it a bit last night and it does feel fun to smash! Thanks for all the help.

Yeah, with invuln, the AOE based approach is way better than the single targeted approach, because you actually want those bad guys standing around you in a big group to get the maximum benefit from Invincibility.

Besides, if you want knockdown effects, you can always slot the proc from Stupefy to all your disorient powers, and at least have that 20% chance to knockdown.

I played an Invuln/Axe tank up to 50. I enjoyed the set, but overall, I like other sets better. The knockdown is a key aspect of the set and mitigates a fair amount of damage. The set was significantly improved when Penduluum was changed from knockback to knockdown. The AoE isn't too bad, with Whirling Axe at 360 degrees, Penduluum at about 180 degrees, and Cleave as one of those very narrow cones that hits hard.

The best part about the Battle Axe set? You get to hit your foes with a big frikkin' AXE! (Although, due to character concept, I started using the Shovel as soon as it was available.) It puts out a pretty steady stream of damage -- the middle level attacks do a little more damage, while the big hitters aren't all that big. But Axers need to plan on slotting EndRdx early.

One reason you might be happy with your choice of Mace -- in upper levels, robots resist Lethal damage, but are weak to Smashing. I always hated having to go after Robots.

Oh, and I have that Kinetic Combat knockdown proc in Scorch on my Stone/Fire tank and love it. It hits often enough to be noticable. Since Fire has no mitigation in the set, it seems to help. So I would recommend it. As CMA said the Stupify proc is knockback, so it is a bad idea -- I learned that the hard way on my Fire/Rad controller.